Tag: Ethics

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Example answer – 2001 no 5 – Ethics

See photocopy of Birgitta Cooper’s in file as well.

b) Comment on the claim that conscience allows people the freedom to behave as they wish.

If conscience is an authoritarian force and from God it has implications for man’s free-will. If conscience offers incentives by feelings of satisfaction for good actions and disincentives by guilt and shame for bad actions and ultimately offers punishment or reward by heaven and hell, can man truly be said to have free will?

Freedom is an illusion if our actions are structured this way. Calvin claims that humans have no real free-will, subscribing to theological determinism – that there are two groups of people, the damned and the elect. Although people have freewill in choosing their actions the elect will naturally choose good and the damned bad, and so will go to heaven or hell accordingly, regardless of any illusion of free-will. God is the ultimate decision maker rendering humans mere automatons – they cannot make valid moral decisions and so are not responsible for their actions or sins – God is.

This conflicts with traditional Christian teaching which states that humans were given free-will (and so responsibility and liability to judgment) and conscience to guide them, helping them but not dictating. However, many atheists believe that free-will is the ultimate and humans are autonomous; conscience is linked to empathy and psychology as well as to social factors. This psychological determinism is the opposite extreme arguing that free-will is an illusion and behaviour is determined by psychological and social circumstances; e.g. I may think a decision to dye my hair blonde is an exercise of my free-will but really social pressure to conform to a stereotype of desirability and youth which dictates blonde is ‘beautiful’ has influenced my decision. This is linked to philosophical determinism – that Aquinas’ chain of cause and effect means that past events dictate the future and although choice exists as an illusion it is pre-decided which choice will be made and so free-will is an illusion.

Compatibilists would argue that although there are some situations which past event or psychological factors dictate (influence) people are also autonomous and independent and ultimately free-will can be exercised in addition to either a divinely given or socially programmed conscience, which informs but does not dictate action. From a religious perspective, free-will must exist or sin, judgment, heaven and hell are meaningless concepts as man cannot be held accountable for his actions.

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Essay Plan – 2002 no 4 – Ethics

(a) Outline at least two religious teachings on war [10]

  • Option 1
  • In the OT God was on their side
  • Delivered them from their enemies
  • As he’d promised in his side of the covenant
  • God is presented as a god of action
  • Goal was not destruction of the enemies of his people
  • Enemies were often instruments of God’s retributive power
  • War must be conducted under God’s guidance or it is rooted in human greed and selfishness.
  • Struggle between Israel and her enemies is seen as the cosmic battle between good and evil under the Messiah.
  • Or option 2 – the just war
  • In Christian times the church has viewed it as a duty sometimes to fight for justice
  • (though Jesus’ own teaching of pacifism before an aggressor began to take hold on the public consciousness during the first world war)
  • Indeed the Christians’ unwillingness to fight in defence of the Roman Empire was weakening its defences
  • So Augustine responded with the Just War theory
  • It holds that while life is sacred it may at times be taken to protect or defend the lives of the innocent and in the divine cause of justice
  • 6 principles of resort to war – jus ad bellum
  • 3 of conduct in war – jus in bello
  • None of which guarantee that their lofty principles will be up held but at least they try to limit the damage.
  • Or the third option – pacifism
  • Rooted in the Sermon on the Mount – do not resist evil, turn the other cheek, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors
  • Jesus was the model for this behaviour – led like a lamb to the slaughter to be crucified
  • Conrad Grebel a leader of the Swiss Brethren of the Peace Churches – ‘true Christians use neither worldly sword nor engage in war.’

 

 

(b) ‘An individual’s conscience is of little significance in the context of fighting to protect one’s country.’ Examine and comment on this view. [10]

  • Pacifists believe in the individual’s inalienable right to refuse to fight
  • Plenty of famous people have refused to fight even for their country
  • Pacifism is a more acceptable stance nowadays
  • What is one’s country fighting for? There must be plenty of Americans in Iraq at the moment who wonder!
  • Does it depend on the issue at stake?
  • Surely one’s conscience does make a difference to the level of commitment you might make
  • Enough soldiers who returned from Viet Nam were so shocked and appalled by the horrors and atrocities they witnessed or even took part in that their consciences were so overwhelmed by their actions they suffered from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)
  • Many of us do give care of our consciences into the hands of the authorities in the belief that they know best; the shock is when they prove not to.
  • Theoretically one’s country does have the right to call upon you to fight and at least Augustine’s jus ad bellum and in bello principles should ensure a just cause.
  • But if conscience is indeed an innate and /or God-given faculty, to allow an outside authority to decide for us what is right and what is wrong is to abdicate our natural responsibilities.
  • And Aquinas and Butler both saw it as sinful to act against conscience.
  • And Butler said only obedience to it will make us truly happy
  • All mankind was made in the image of God so to kill others even in the so-called legitimacy of war is still wrong.
  • Aquinas viewed the purpose of human conscience was to ensure we act to seek the highest good the summum bonum and in so doing we were unlikely to do a wrong action
  • An individual’s conscience must not be of little significance – indeed it must be of the highest importance, for this way it is less likely that war will always be the resort and the more individual consciences that are listened to the more likely an alternative solution will be found.
  • If we do not have free will then the outcome of our actions is pre-determined and it does not matter if we fight or not, however if we do have free-will then we have responsibility for our own actions and obeying our consciences is a good guide to right behaviour.
  • Of course conscience can make the wrong decisions and convince us of the rightness of wrong things. This corrupts the conscience and is worse than the subsequent sin itself.